What is the deeper meaning of Rosh Hashanah?

Rosh Hashanah is popularly known as the Jewish New Year. It is true, the new year does begin on that day, but the translation is a bit misleading.

For one, literally, it doesn’t mean "new year" but rather "head of the year," which we’ll explain a little later. And secondly, Rosh Hashanah is not something of parochial significance just to Jews so that it should be classified as exclusively "Jewish." Actually, the day is relevant to every human being, and indeed, every created being in the entire universe, for Rosh Hashanah is the day that commemorates G-d’s creation of the world.

So if you’re looking for conceptual translation of the name, Rosh Hashanah should really be called the Anniversary of Creation. Indeed, the new calendar year that Rosh Hashanah ushers in is the number of years from the creation, the number value of the current Jewish year being the age of the universe.1

Until the sixth day of creation, G-d was only a Creator who had made many things. But on the sixth day... G-d became the actual King of the universe

Now, it should be noted that Rosh Hashanah is not the anniversary of the exact beginning of creation. It’s actually a few days off. But, in short order, this will make perfect sense, if you hang in there. You’re probably familiar with the idea that "In six days G-d created and on the seventh day He rested." Creation was a six day process. Rosh Hashanah is actually the exact anniversary of the sixth day. Why not the first?

You see, for the first five days, G-d created many things: the heavens, the earth, the sun, moon and stars, all types of vegetation and animals… But it wasn’t until the sixth and final day of creation that He created a human being2 . This first human being was named Adam (yes, the one who later sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge).

Adam, being human, was given intelligence and free will. Adam, unlike all of the other creations in the world, could choose – like all of us humans are able to choose – whether or not to recognize G-d’s sovereignty. Nothing else in creation can reject G-d, not a planet, blade of grass, a fish, or an animal. They were created to perform their functions, and that they do reliably and faithfully. It is only the human that was given license to reject the Creator. And thus, it is only the human that can truly accept G-d.

Until the sixth day of creation, G-d was only a Creator who had made many things. But on the sixth day, when there existed a being with free choice who willingly submitted to G-d of his own accord, it was then that G-d became the actual King of the universe. On the day that Adam was created, he crowned G-d as King and proclaimed the words later recorded in Psalm 93, "G-d has reigned. He has enclothed Himself in grandeur."

At that point, G-d was no longer just some impersonal manufacturer of existence, but accepted as the Ruler of all existence. And it is this that we commemorate every Rosh Hashanah when we celebrate the anniversary of when G-d’s sovereignty was first accepted. Each and every Rosh Hashanah, G-d’s historical coronation day, we too make the choice that Adam made, and we appoint G-d as King over us. And it is said, that if we would not wish to summon G-d to rule for another year, He would simply concede, disengage and allow the world to revert to nothingness.

Now, we mentioned above that Rosh Hashanah doesn’t mean new year, but rather, head of the year. That idea ties in directly with understanding Rosh Hashanah as the anniversary of G-d’s being accepted as King of the world. Just like the head contains within it the nerve center that controls the entire body, so too, Rosh Hashanah contains within its forty-eight hours all of the energy for the entire year.

Rosh Hashanah contains within its forty-eight hours all of the energy for the entire year

Whatever will happen during the coming year is already contained within that year’s Rosh Hashanah and will just proceed to unfold over the course of a year. Since Rosh Hashanah is the day of coronating G-d and asking Him to rule over the world He has created, it follows that what we are really doing on Rosh Hashanah is eliciting from G-d the will and desire to continue this project for another year. Thus, whatever will happen during the coming year is all decreed on that day when G-d is moved by our invitation to re-invest Himself for another year in maintaining this world and all that is in it.

In that sense, the two days of Rosh Hashanah are very much the nuero-center for the entire year. It is for this reason that Rosh Hashanah is a very solemn and intense day. We are literally performing "brain surgery" with a year’s worth of creation of the world.

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The Jewish New Year. An early autumn two day holiday marking the creation of Adam and Eve. On this day we hear the blasts of the ram's horn and accept G-d's sovereignty upon ourselves and the world. On Rosh Hashanah we pray that G-d should grant us all a sweet New Year.

Adam

The first man, created by G-d on the sixth day of creation. He was banished from the Garden of Eden after eating from the forbidden fruit of the forbidden knowledge. Died in 2830 BCE.

G-d

It is forbidden to erase or deface the name of G-d. It is therefore customary to insert a dash in middle of G-d's name, allowing us to erase or discard the paper it is written on if necessary.